Mazda Direct will close doors on Sunday

Mazda Direct is the latest casualty of the sales slump among new-car dealers.

Mazda Direct is the latest casualty of the sales slump among new-car dealers.

The dealership at 4040 Appian Way on the Northeast Side will close Sunday. An employee confirmed the closing date and said the sister dealership next door, Toyota Direct, will stay open.

No one with the parent company, Performance Automotive Network of Fairfield, was available to comment.

Mazda Direct had sold 217 new vehicles this year through October, down 24 percent from the same period last year, according to Autoview Online, a service that tracks auto sales. The only Mazda dealer to sell more in central Ohio is Byers Mazda Subaru, which had sold 581 new vehicles, down 8 percent from last year.

New-car sales are down 15 percent nationwide and 10 percent in central Ohio as dealers and customers struggle through the economic downturn. Dealers are particularly hurt by the tight credit market, which stops some customers from getting loan approvals.

Mazda Direct will be the sixth new-car dealer in central Ohio to call it quits this year. The others are Bobb Chevrolet, which still has a used-car store; Graham Ford; and Ron Rush Lincoln Mercury, all in Columbus, and Roby Mitsubishi and Roby Suzuki in Dublin.

Other dealers are trimming their staffs. Germain Motor Co. laid off about 60 workers at its nine central Ohio dealerships last week; that's about 9 percent of its work force.